Daimler, the maker of Mercedes- Benz cars and trucks, reported its first quarterly profit in a year after reducing spending and attracting buyers with a new version of the E-Class luxury sedan.
Third-quarter net income was €41 million, or 4 cents a share, from €200 million, or 21 cents, a year earlier, Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler said today in a statement.
Daimler racked up €3.8 billion in losses over the previous three quarters as the recession plunged the auto industry into its worst crisis since World War II. The company, which is the world's largest truckmaker and the second-biggest luxury-car manufacturer, delayed a wage increase, scaled back hours and started closing truck plants in Asia and North America to reduce costs this year by more than €4 billion.
Sales in the three months through September fell 19 per cent to €19.3 billion euros, Daimler said. Earnings before interest and taxes declined 27 per cent to €470 million. The Mercedes-Benz Cars division, which also owns the Smart mini-car brand, more than tripled Ebit in the quarter to €355 million from €112 million a year earlier.
The revised E-Class went on sale late in the first quarter. Daimler's truck unit, which also makes Freightliner vehicles in the US and Fuso models in Asia, had a loss of €127 million compared with a profit of €510 million a year.
Truck Division Daimler Trucks, which is eliminating 5,800 jobs and closing two factories in North America and two in Asia, was the only division to post a loss last quarter. In the second quarter, the bus division was the only profitable manufacturing unit after losses at the car, truck and van divisions.
Contractions in the US and European car and truck markets since late 2008 prompted Daimler to slash output to save money. Production cuts peaked in April, when Daimler reduced the hours of as many as 68,000 workers in Germany by more than 10 per cent.
At the end of the third quarter, the number of employees on shortened workweeks had been lowered to 27,400, the company said.
Bloomberg